Often I felt a character was trying to find a way to love themselves, rather than trying to find love in another person.

Particularly in “The Hardness Test.” Do you think people seek love as a way to reconcile a flaw they see in themselves?

Which is, by the way, what all these stories are about. I love the sense that the reader/viewer/audience knows something the narrator does not know.

Quenching the thirst of the heart – and how technology throws a strange wrench in that pursuit. I wanted to warn some of your characters about this more than once, which got me to thinking about how you use this as a plot construction. This gives the reader a feeling of investment and even privilege in the story. ” But at the same time recognizing the instinct to do so, that sense of adventure and attraction that makes us behave sometimes in ways that we know are not wise.

And even then, keeping a healthy skepticism about one, at all times.

There is a lot of love out there in the world and people do find it this way. You might be better off going to a bar or a matchmaker!

Finding the right mirror to see herself in, the right man to love.They can invent themselves to be suit our fantasies, and we ourselves can do this too.There is incredible opportunity to just plain lie in this world.I see my students sneaking to check phones during class even though I forbid it and the penalty is severe.I see friends of mine who are dating online checking for new messages several times a day.